


High Mischief

by AetherBunny



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Cute, Gen, Kid Fic, Team Bonding, very slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-16
Updated: 2016-03-16
Packaged: 2018-05-27 04:14:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6269230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AetherBunny/pseuds/AetherBunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I really liked the tumblr post about the Avengers getting cursed into only speaking their first languages, and there is always room for de-aging. So I combined them. </p>
<p>Loki (by mention only) shows up and curses the main six avengers into kids again. They age slowly over night and are teens the next day. Sam and Maria are left in charge and do the best job they can.</p>
<p>The fic is very tame, but there are just enough swears to count as PG-13</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I sat on this unfinished for about a year or so, but I'm doing my best to not start any new fics until I finish things I've started.

"Sir?" Maria Hill entered Fury's office and was greeted with an odd sight. A boy no more than four was laying on his back, feet on the side of Fury's desk. He was sullen faced and kicking the side in an arrhythmic manner.

"Who do we know in this place speaks Italian?" He rubbed his temples.

"I know some sir."

"Good, very good. You can deal with this then." He motioned to the boy on the floor. "This is Tony Stark, a very pissed off four year old Tony Stark."

"What?"

"One word for you, Loki. It seems he just wanted to stop by to let us know he can still screw us over."

"Uh huh. Why Italian?"

"That's all he speaks. Or at least all he's spoken to anyone who's tried to talk to him."

"I'm going to guess it's not just him then is it?"

"Right. Got nearly everybody, Sam has the rest of them down at the old daycare facility. Stark just refused to go with them. He's been kicking my desk for the last fifteen minutes."

"I'll see what I can do." She crouched down. "Hello? What are you doing down on the floor?" Tony shot up and stared at her. "Don't you want to go play with the other kids?" He was silent and then suddenly.

"Bella! Bella! You look like my mama! What's your name?"  
  
  


"Maria."  
  
  


"Just like my mama! My name is Tony. Are you hear to take care of me? All the ladies that take care of me talk Italian!" He patted her hand. "They call me Nino and sometimes bring me sweets! They're my favorites! Mr. Jarvis always says no sweets, but he lets me eat them if Papa's not around."

"Yeah, I guess I am." She picked herself up off the floor and held out a hand. Tony scrambled to his feet took her hand in both of his and kissed it. Fury raised an eyebrow.

"His nannies were Italian" she explained. "They must have spoiled him rotten, he's really happy to see me. I'll take him down to Sam and see if I can get him to play with the others."

"Hill, thank you."

 

"Was the pirate man mad?" Tony asked her on their way down to the daycare room.

"Just a little bit, but he's always a little bit mad."

“Why?”

“Well not everybody around him is a very good listener.”

"Okay, I'll try to be a good listener next time. Where are we going?"

"There are some other kids here too, we're going to find them.”

"I don't really know any other kids? Are they nice?" Stark was one odd little kid so far, but she was willing to bet it was the side effect of an unfortunate childhood.

"I'm sure they'll be nice." Maria hoped for his sake the other kids were. "Alright, here we are. There are all kinds of things for you to - "

"Would you stay down here with me?" He looked up at her with such big soft brown eyes she couldn't help but follow him into the room. There was a small circle of kids coloring quietly on the floor.

"Hey Hill, I see you got Stark to cooperate how'd you manage that?" Sam was happy to see her.

"He apparently only answers to Italian? How are you doing down here?"

"We're... pretty good. You know when Fury first called me I was worried they'd be little monsters, but so far, they've been fine. I think half of it is because they can't really understand each other? Only Bruce speaks English, I mean, Steve might, but he's been asleep almost the whole time." He shifted to reveal a scrawny blond figure curled up at his side. "Well you know, now that I think about it, Clint hasn't said a word to me at all." He motioned to the boy who was coloring a few feet away from the others.

"Oh! Clint is mostly deaf! He must have lost his aids." She forgot it wasn't exactly common knowledge.

"That's not a problem, here take Steve a second." He passed the tiny sleeping boy off to Maria and went to check in with Clint. He tapped him on the shoulder and began to sign.

Sorry, I didn't know you were deaf.

That's okay. The boy signed back Not a lot of people think about it.

Are you doing okay?

Yeah I'm fine. Who are all the other people? Sam introduced everyone, and added. Bruce might be the only one that speaks English, we could ask if he could write notes with you? Clint nodded and Sam went to talk to Bruce. The boy was shy, but seemed concerned that Clint had been left out.

My name is Bruce. He wrote at the top of a page. Do you want to color with me?

Clint nodded and smiled. They two returned to coloring, occasionally passing the note paper between them. Sam joined the others back on the couch.

"Is he okay?" Tony was peering at a sleeping Steve curled up against Maria's chest.

"His body is very sick, so he needs lots of sleep to help it feel better." Maria wasn't sure of any other way to explain it.

"Okay. But he's going to be okay? Will he grow up big and strong?" He flexed a little arm.

"I think he'll grow up to be just fine." She assured him. Little did he know the runt of the litter was going to get much bigger than him. "Do you want to color? I'll stay right here."

"Okay" He plopped himself onto the floor and crawled to a spot in between dainty little Natasha and the oversized Thor. They seemed reluctant to be separated but quickly got over it.

Free of Tony, Maria could take them all in a little better. Truthfully they were all pretty cute. Clint's natural scowl was softened by round cheeks, Bruce still carried some baby weight and that combined with his curls made Maria think of the cherubs in the old paintings. Natasha was alarmingly blonde, she grew into her red hair Maria supposed. She chattered away seemingly unconcerned nobody knew what she was saying. Thor was all smiles, he was bigger than the average four year old, but that was to be expected. She could see from where she was he was drawing pictures of his family. Oh the irony.

Steve was starting to stir, coughing a little and stretching out.

"Where am I?"

Maria only assumed that's what it was, because he didn't ask it in English. Whatever he said, and whatever he said it in made Thor pause.

"When did we all get here?" He adjusted himself in her lap.

"Hey little guy, are you alright? That was some nap you had." Sam seemed concerned.

"I'm okay. " He answered in English this time. This didn't stop Thor from coming over to regard him curiously.

"What did you say?" Now it was Thor's Norse that made Steve pause.

"Do you know what he said?" Steve turned to Sam.

"No, nobody is sure."

"I can almost figure it out, but not really? What does he speak?"

"Some sort of Norse I'm guessing." There was a new voice from the doorway. "From the old Celtic, same as the Gaelic your mother taught you right Steve? I'm not surprised they can almost comunicate."

"Yeah. How'd you know about my ma?"

"We have some papers about you and your families, It helps us take care of you better." Coulson joined Sam, Maria and the kids. "I heard there was some high mischief going on and I thought you might need a hand."

"You just wanted to see them all as kids didn't you?"

"That might be part of it. How are they so far?"  
"Surprisingly docile, this is probably before most of them got screwed up." Maria was blunt but to the point.

"Makes sense. Did they get any other translators yet?"

"Maria can talk to Tony, I can talk to Clint, he and Bruce have been writing notes. Thor and Natasha are mysteries, Steve at least seems to be bilingual."

"Hm, Tony should be too. I wonder if he's just being stubborn."

"I wouldn't be surprised." Sam nodded.

"Well I'll lend a hand. Tasha, sweetheart, how are you today?"

"Oh!" Natasha perked up. She bounded over to Coulson and regarded him curiously. "Are you a teacher?"

"Sort of. Are you having a nice time coloring?"

"Yes, but I'm sad to be the only girl in the class. Are you going to teach the boys Russian?"

"Not today, we're just going to take care of you for a while. Your parents have some important things they have to do, so you are going to stay with us. Is that okay?"

"Yes, I think so. Will there be snacks?"

"Snacks are a good idea. What kind should we have?"

"I don't know? What kind of snacks are there?"

"I'll go find out. I'll be right back." He switched back to English. "She's getting hungry I'm going to see if we have anything for them to eat."

Steve was now up on his feet and wandering around the room. Thor was not too far behind seemingly having decided Steve was someone to bond with. He'd occasionally point to something and then name it aloud. Steve would respond in Gaelic and they'd see how similar the word was. Maria wondered how well things on Asgard match with things here on earth. How much of it would get lost in translation, there seemed to be at least a few things Steve didn't have words for. Still Steve might be their best hope of comunicating with Thor, unless they could call Solveg away from his work.

The small boy seemed pretty happy to have a language lesson, soon he was drawing all kinds of things just to see what Thor would call them. He was very excited about dogs and cats and birds, but had no real words for cars or planes. Sometimes Steve would try and repeat the word back to Thor who would beam and laugh and squeeze him in a hug. The final time Steve wheezed and his playmate was more than a little alarmed. Steve did his best to tell him he was okay. Thor dashed off to get one of his drawings pointing at a pair of smaller figures in a drawing of his family. He held one of Steve's wrists and patted the dark haired figure in the drawing and then back to Steve again.

"I don't get it?" He looked back to the adults for help. Neither of them knew what to tell him.

"You're little like his brother I think." Coulson had returned with a box of cheese crackers and some baby carrots.

Snack time went well, the kids happily munching away on what Coulson had found in the break room. Mostly happily anyway. Natasha discovered she didn't really like the cheese crackers, but that was remedied when Clint offered the rest of his carrots in exchange. She smiled and patted his hair. He hastily scribbled something out to Bruce and hid it with his hand.

"What's that say?" A little voice beside them piped up. Tony who had not spoken a word of English since the incident decided to break his streak. Both Maria and Sam were startled by this new development, Coulson just smiled.

"He says it's a secret." Bruce responded through a mouthful of cracker.

"But I wanna know too?"

"Maybe if you're nice to him he will tell you. You can write him notes to talk because he can't hear." Bruce was already writing something else down for his new friend. Clint read it and thought for a moment before nodding. "He says he'll talk to you."

Tony shuffled around for an unused piece of paper. Im Tony, he wrote. Do yu want to find som more toys after snack? He slid it over to Clint. The other boy nodded. Do yu just rite nots to peple all the time?

No, I use sign language so I talk with my hands. Clint wrote back along with fixing Tony's spelling.

Neat, can yu tech me? Clint noded vigorously in response. He started with his own name, then thought of one for Tony, and then they're on to carrots and crackers and then bowl and rug and pretty soon Steve is following along and then Thor of course and not wanting to be left out Natasha joins in.

Sam glowed like a proud father.

"If only they could be this cooperative all the time." he wiped an imaginary tear from his cheek. He wasn't surprised Bruce was the first person to ask about the more abstract things. Fun and play, please and more, yes and no were added to their vocabulary. In their exploration they found a bucket of plastic dinosaurs which were quickly dumped all over the floor and toy cars followed after. Thor was completely baffled by the plasic lizards but enjoyed them all none the less. Soon they were roaring and stomping and whooshing all over the room, or in Clint's case making lots of snarly faces. Tony seemed half interested and it soon was apparent why. He found one of the note pages and wrote something out for Clint.

When I growup I want to make someting that can help you hear. He passed it over and noded very seriously.

Clint read it over and grined ear to ear. I have hearing aids, he wrote back, but I don't know where they are.

A highly offended minature Tony Stark marched his way over to adults on the couch dragging Clint behind him.

"How come you guys have all this science stuff I saw when we got checkups but nobody can find Clint's hearing aids?!"

Coulson tried hard not to laugh at the adorable outrage before him. Instead he explained to both boys.

"We have some people upstairs making him a new pair. We just want to make sure they're as good as his old ones."

Thanks! Clint signed back to him and was content to go back and play. Tony gave him a very serious you'd better be glare before going back to join the other kids.

Soon they seem to have built a dinosaur city, part of it directly around a dozy Steve.

“It's getting late, where are we going to keep them?” Maria turned to ask Coulson.

“Well, we have bunks, but something tells me they won't go over well.”

“Can't we just make them a fort? There are nap mats here right, gym mats or something? We can find some sheets and pillows and just -” Sam wasn't sure if they were staring at him like that because they liked his idea or they thought it was nuts.

“I'm going to get you a promotion. I don't know how super hero promotions work, but I'll figure it out just for you.” Coulson didn't think he was nuts. “I'll go see what kind of blankets I can find. You rearange the room.”

“I really don't think we want six little helpers, is there anything that will keep them all distracted? Could we put in a movie? That won't really work will it?”

“I'll just see what they have, maybe something will jump out at me.” Sam ducked into one of the other rooms and returned a minute or two later victorious. “Awesome I found Fantasia 2000, it's bright, interesting, and any talking isn't really important! Plus none of the really scary stuff from the first one, even if the hippos and gators were funny.”

Sam was on a roll with his good ideas. The kids were completely absorbed in the film. Thor was enthralled by the flying whales, next to him Steve was absolutely glued to the Rhapsody in Blue segment despite his drooping eyelids. Clint had found one of the large speakers tucked behind a shelf, he and Sam dragged it out so he could rest against it while he watched. Tony was sleepy too, swiping a floor cushion and dragging it over to Clint. He seemed to prefer snuggling up to his playmate and just listening to the score. Bruce had joined them at some point and seemed to be the most awake of all the children. Natasha was humming and swaying and playing with Thor's hair, who didn't mind the attention at all.

Coulson snuck back in past the drowsy kids with Fury right behind him. They had a cart full of mats and sheets and a handful of pillows.

“How are they?” Fury turned to his other employees.

“Angelic compared to their adult selves.” Sam smirked.

“He's right, aside from Stark's minor tantrum they've been great.”

“Good, if only we could keep them like this.”

“I think we'd need better intergalactic defenses and then a larger comissary budget for if they ever hit puberty.” Coulson piped up beside him.

They arranged the mats in the side room, the puffier training mats stacked on their thinner counterparts. Sheets were streched as far as they could go and tucked under corners. They left the pillows in the center figuring the kids would only move them around anyway. Finishing up they disovered most of their small charges were half asleep if not totally down for the count.

“I cannot even believe this itty bitty little thing grows up to be Captain America.” Sam looked down at a sleeping Steve before collecting him from the floor. The little boy only stirred when Sam set him down on the mats. Thor was vailiantly fighting sleep shuffling after Coulson who had a sleeping Clint on his shoulder.

“Of all the things in Barton's files we don't actually have any pictures from his childhood. If I were a lesser man I'd take a few now for future negotiations.”

“I'm not tired at all.” A droopy-eyed Tony slipped back into Italian trying to convice Maria he could stay awake for the end of the movie. Bruce rubbed his eyes and attempted to get his berings before pleasantly headding off to bed himself. He found a pillow and Clint and snuggled in.

Fury almost seemed reluctant to part with mini Natasha.

“Never had kids.” he said brushing her hair from her face. “And I don't play favorites.” He said in a tone that implied otherwise.

In the end Thor was tucked protectively next to Steve, Natasha on his other side. Bruce was to her right and Clint was beside him. Tony was the other bookend who quietly hummed himself to sleep.

“They are awfully cute aren't they?” Coulson verbalized what they were all thinking. “I was worried this would be difficult.”

  
  


The next morning they quickly decided he should have kept his mouth shut.

 


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey, hey. Sam right?” Tony was nudging him awake. “We got a problem.” Sam adjusted himself on the couch moving Maria's feet out from under his arm expecting to see a four year old. He was unpleasantly surprised to see a pair of teenagers before him. It wasn't so much that they were older now, it was that one of them was sporting a massive shiner.

“Wait what happened?”

“The girl, Natasha? I woke up and she was kind of pacing around the room. I went to see if she was okay and then she just clocked me and ran out.” Rather impressively Steve didn't seem bothered by the ugly bruising spreading across his face.

“Oh shit-crap. Oh crap. Okay look sit tight we'll get you some ice as soon as we can okay.”

“It's alright, I get hit a lot.”He just shrugged making Sam nearly fall off the couch “I don't like bullies.”

“Hill, come on. We've got trouble.” He shook her ankle.

“What?”

“The kids are older now, and apparently they've started to get a little messed up. Natasha's on the loose, she's aready given one black eye.”

“What!” She bolt upright and took a look at Steve. “Alright, um. Get him some ice and I'll get the word out.” She groped for her phone. “Coulson, is Nick in yet? We've got a problem. The kids are teenagers now...Yeah, and it seems like they remember everything in their lives up until this point. Natasha's gotten loose somewhere. Yeah, no, I don't know. I do know she's already punched Steve in the face. ... He seems okay but we need to ice it. ... Okay, okay. I'm on it.” She hung up and rubbed some sleep from her eyes. “Phil's calling Nick, and then he's going to meet us here, he said we should keep an eye on the rest of them and see if we can find Natasha, if they remember us from yesterday she might too.”

By the time Coulson arrived the rest of the boys had woken up. They were looking just a little more like themselves at this point. Thor was huge, Tony was sporting a little facial hair, he was hovering over a still too small Steve. Clint stood between Bruce and the rest of them fiddling with the new hearing aids Coulson brought for him.

“Do they work?” he asked and when Clint looked up at the sound of his voice Coulson took that as a yes. “Alright, here's what I think. Officially I have to say the boys should stay in one place and not assist in the search. But personally we all know at this point that's not going to happen. So as long as I have no idea you're all running around out there none of us will get in trouble. I'm going to go make a lot of phone calls and pretend we never had this conversation. Anybody who isn't seaching can come to my office. If you need me for anything call. If you find her call, I'll instruct you from there. Good luck.” He gave them a nod and left them alone to plan.

  
  


“Look no offense pip-squeak but can you even go running around this place looking for someone who has already turned you into the Phantom of the Opera?” Tony had turned on Steve the minute Coulson was gone.

“Hey! I can hold my own just fine! She was just startled, I don't think she's out to get anybody.”

“Sorry Steve, Natasha didn't have a great childhood. We might not be out to hurt her, but she's not going to see it that way. You guys can help us look, but if you find her do not try and get close to her okay? Just let us do that part.” Maria had read her files when she was hired on. At 17 Natasha could very well take down just about anybody who got in her way. “I think we should split up and cover as much ground as we can. You guys absoulutely have to stay with one of us? Got it? Most of the people who work here have no idea what's happened to you guys let alone the most dangerous one of you is loose in the building.”

“Wait, I'm sorry ma'm what do you mean what happened to us?” Steve had to turn to see her around the bag of ice he was holding to his eye.

“Oh, I guess you wouldn't know would you? How much do you remember?”

“Not a whole lot, everything is sort of fuzzy. I remeber you and Sam and everybody else from yesterday. I remember home, and Bucky and all of that, but I don't know when any of it happened.”

“Okay I'll try and explain. You're all supposed to be adults, but there was an – incident with --”

“Loki? Yes. My brother has indeed done this before many times. We should return to ourselves in a day's time.” Thor filled them in. “This is a favorite trick of his. Although he does not perform it much at home any more. Mother did not appreciate having to look after her husband and her children at the same time.”

“That's good to know, thanks Thor. Now how do we want to do this?”

“I'll go with you.” Tony took a step closer to Maria. Steve rolled his good eye.

“Okay then I think Steve will come with me.” Sam picked one for his team deciding it was best to keep Steve and Tony apart. Bruce was looking between the two of them, unsure of who to go with until Tony pulled his sleve. Thor considered how easy it would be for him to carry the much smaller Steve if the need arose and decided to go with him and Sam. Clint hadn't said anything the entire time, or even seemed to be paying attention to the proceedings at all. Sam got his attention. Are you feeling okay? He signed to him. I guess, Clint answered, but I think I want to go sit with Coulson.

This was not the answer they were expecting, but they walked him to the office and made sure he was alright all the same. Coulson didn't seem to be too surprised by his visitor and assured Maria they'd be fine.

From there Maria and Sam headed off in separate directions with their small teams in tow. Team Hill was going to the top two floors and the gymnasium, Team Wilson would get the underground and cafeteria. Coulson had given him a higher up ID card to get in and out of locked rooms. They were to search every nook and cranny and provided the lockdown happened fast enough they should find her. Well at least they hoped they'd find her. If they didn't, best case scenario would be she'd age up by morning and give up hiding, they didn't really want to think about the worst case.

Team Hill made reasonable time through the first few rooms, the boys were thurough searchers and left no door unopened. Maria did have to check in with Tony to keep him on track, but he was pretty good at talking and searching at the same time. He never really seemed to stop talking, mostly to Bruce, but the other boy was hardly bothered. Or if he was he didn't say anything about it. He hardly said anything at all actually. The reason became clear when they bumped into another SHEILD agent, and he was pretty unhappy.

“Hill, who are these kids and how did they get in here, there is a lockdown you know.” Beside her, Bruce flinched.

“I'm aware, I was the one who requested the lockdown. As for the kids, they're with me, it's classified.”

“Of course it is.”

“Excuse me? I don't like your attitude agent.”

“Hey don't talk to her like that!” Tony had puffed himself up and stepped between Maria and the other man. “She's just doing her job!”

“And who the hell are you kid?

“I'm Anthony Edward Stark and I think you need to apologize to Maria.”

“Maria?” He parroted undable to believe what was going on. “Listen here Anthony Edward Stark -”

“Tony please. It's not worth it to pick fights. We have something important we need to get back to.” She put her had to his shoulder and steered him away from the impending shouting match. “Why don't you find Bruce and cool down for a minute okay?” Tony nodded and stalked off around the corner where the other boy had gone to hide.

“Sorry.” He spat when Maria caught up to them. “I didn't want him to yell at you. I-I didn't want him to get all mad at _you_ if he could just be mad at _me_ instead.” Tony wouldn't look at her. “He knows what I mean.” Beside him Bruce nodded eyes also on the floor.

“Okay, just try not to do that kind of thing again? I'm the boss of almost all of the people that work in this building so I can just fire them if they cause trouble.” She assured him wondering what kind of time Sam was having downstairs, and if they should have swapped teams. She wasn't really prepared to handle things like this.

Downstairs Team Wilson was a little slower at searching. Thor was very distracted by all the technology and Steve had only one hand/eye to work with. Both boys were in great moods and bonded easily over their missing other halves. It was very sweet but Sam was wondering how much longer he could stand Loki and Bucky stories. Four or five rooms in Steve started to lag behind a little, he sat a little longer, breathed a little heavier. Being Steve he would never admit to needing a break so Sam turned to his new friend.

“Thor, I'm a little worried about Steve, I think he's getting tired but won't admit it.” The blond nodded, face serious. “Do you think you can convince him to take a rest or something?”

“I will do my best.” Sam watched him consider his options for a moment before deciding on a plan of action.

“Steve! I must confess something to you. I am feeling homesick, these stories of my brother have made me miss him terribly. Would you do me a kindness?”

“Uh, sure Thor how can I help?”

  
“When we were small and had tested Mother's patience to it's limits she would send Loki and I out into the woods to gather certain things for her. He would always complain about the walk so I used to carry him on my back. You do not have to be as demanding as he was, but it might help me feel some comfort.”

“Alright? I mean I do kinda miss Bucky hauling me around all the time. He says I'm too slow and that's the reason we're always late to places. I think he just doesn't want to go!”

Thor bent down and helped Steve to situate himself.

“I'm not too heavy for you am I?” he asked looping his arms loosely around the other boy's neck.

“Less than a feather!” Thor laughed. “We may have to put rocks in your pockets so I can tell you are still there!”

“That's good Buck always whines about it.”

“Loki would tell me I was moving too slow.”

“Maybe we should get those two together to complain on their own!” Thor's deep laughter was contagious and Sam found himself laughing along despite how dangerous an idea the boys had come up with.

\--

Back in Coulson's office he had left his young charge with his own thoughts for a minute or two before waving a hand to get his attention. You want to go look for her, don't you?

“Yeah.” Clint voiced.

You know it would be totally irresponsible of me to let you out there on your own right?

“Yeah.”

But you think you can find her on your own, don't you.

“Yeah.”

You know she could kill you. Before you even knew you found her you could be dead.

Clint looked away his attention going to the filing cabinet to his left. He nodded a closed hand.

“ I feel like I'm sending you out on that mission all over again.” Coulson shuffled around in his desk drawers for a moment and pulled out a small black box. “This is basically just a tracking device, there is a button to push to activate a small alarm in the corresponding unit and then the wearer can be tracked via any synched device. Simple, practical, and this one is yours now. Press the button when you find her, stay where you are and whatever you do, don't try and approach her.” Clint accepted the device from Coulson and put it in his pocket. Good luck he signed, Clint nodded and was off.

  
  


\--

There she was, in the way back of some no longer used athetic equipment closet. Natasha was curled into a ball, knees up to her chest. He thought about the tracker for just a second before passing on the idea.

“Hey.” Clint crept towards her, hands up, palms out. She didn't even look up at him. “Do you speak any english?” His voice was rough and hardly articulate, he spoke slowly. “No? It's okay I can't either.” She didn't smile back at him. “Look, there are a lot of people trying to find you right now. They're not going to do anything to hurt you.” He sat down across from her, pulling his legs up as well. After a moment or so of nothing he reached out his right hand, slowly, gently. She responded by snatching it and breaking his first two fingers before he even knew what was happening.

“FUCK!” He yelped in pain. “I guess I could see that coming. But I really needed those.” He cradled his rapidly swelling hand. “You're really something else, you know that?” She pointedly looked away from him, but it was a response. “They said your name is Natasha. That's pretty, much better than Clinton. Look, I'm going to move closer to you okay? I just want you to know what's going to happen in advance.” He slid just an inch or so closer, she tensed. “It's alright see, I couldn't hurt you if I tried.” He held his blue purple hand back out to her. “I don't want to hurt you. Nobody here does. They're really nice. I remember yesterday pretty well. I bet you do too. I can remember your hair was blonder, and you didn't want your cheese crackers so we traded for my carrots. We watched that movie with all the art. What can you remember?” She looked at him suddenly. “I-I'm supposed to be in the circus, with my brother. We're a sharpshooter act. Mostly just Barney, I'm still 'in training' even though I'm better than him. I don't remember how I got to this place, but I sort of remember everybody else. It feels like I knew them all from before the circus? Or during it some how? Time feels really funny but I knew I could find you. I don't know how I knew, but I did.” They sat in silence after that. If she didn't understand him talking would get him nowhere. He didn't want to leave her, but trying to get her to move would probably lead to more trouble. He looked around the room, no windows, no vents, no way out but the door. “Okay, look, I'm just going to sit outside the door okay? I'll just wait. You can come out if you want, but I'll be there. I can't really stop you, so I'm just going to trust you. We'll just wait until we get older again. This is all supposed to wear off, and we'll remember each other the right way then.” Clint got up and left the storage closet. He sat with his back to the opposite wall. He was more likely to notice the handle turn than hear it if he were sitting against the door. He thought about pushing the tracking button, and in the end he decided it might be a good idea.

Coulson arrived a few minutes later, Clint could tell he noticed his broken fingers but he didn't say anything about them.

Good job. He signed. Are you sure she's still in there?

“Yeah, no windows or vents or anything, she'd have to come out this door.” Clint said out loud. He didn't want to use his hand. “I can check if you want, I don't think she'll hurt me again, not when she could have before.”

The men didn't have to wonder not when the handle started moving. Natasha emerged slowly and didn't seem at all surprised to see Coulson was there too. She looked at them for a moment before holding her hands out close together, wrists up. Coulson shook his head, Clint stood up and offered his good hand instead. This seemed to surprise her, but she took it anyway barely closing her hand around his.

As they walked Coulson called the others.

“We found her, yeah. She's okay, so is Clint... No, yeah, me too. I'll call Wilson and we can meet back at the daycare. See you there.” He paused for a second to press another number. Beside Clint Natasha couldn't decide if she wanted to walk close next to him or not. She wavered along in a serpetine pattern with whatever she was turning over in her brain. “Sam, good news. We have Natasha. She and Clint are fine. Yes, I knew that was going to happen too. It did work. We'll meet you and the boys back in the daycare alright? ... ... Sure I'll have one sent down.” They passed a pair of agents who, to their credit, didn't give them a second look. Clint couldn't tell by the way Natasha's grip on his hand tightened and she did her best to put herself between them and him. He gave her hand a little squeeze back but she didn't relax.

He was worried she had broken his other hand by the time they got back to the kid's room. They were the last to arrive, and Coulson was glad to see a moment or so later the inhaler he had requested arrived for Steve. The skinny teen was looking pale curled up on the end of the couch. Thor was trying not look obviously worried hovering nearby. Bruce was flipping through a bin of DVDs and Tony was actually laying on his stomach pushing around a toy car. Thankfully they all had the good sense not to rush to the new arrivals, Clint wasn't sure how Natasha would handle it.

“Hey, can we watch this one again?” Bruce asked “I mean this isn't gonna last much longer right? We can just wait it out with Disney?” He waived the Fantasia 2000 case.

“You remember you watched it?” Coulson checked in.

“Yeah, I remember yesterday pretty well actually. I'm starting to feel like things are lining up again. I know I'm supposed to be an adult, and it feels like I will be soon? I can't really explain the feeling.”

“That's good, it means the spell is wearing off like Thor said. In the mean time I'm going to guess you're all pretty hungry. I requested dinner from the cafeteria and it should be on it's way.” Coulson checked his watch. “In the mean time, yeah we can put the movie in again.”

Not too long into the film the food arrived. It was a standard spread of cold cut sandwiches, fruit, pickles, bags of chips, and cans of soda (and a bag of ice for Clint's hand).

“Grab something now, you might not get anything if you wait. Not all of them have their super metabolisims yet, but they're still teenagers.” Coulson reminded the other adults as he took a ham and cheese from the stack.

When Natasha didn't get up for food Clint did his best to balance everything in one hand. He did a reasonable job only having to go back for fruit and a can of soda.

“Pop in a can?” Steve had perked up at the mention of food and he was eyeing his can of soda curiously.

“Just lift the tab, no need for a bottle opener anymore.” Sam informed him. Steve followed directions and took a sip of his newly opened Coke.

“Tastes about the same.” he said after a moment of consideration.

“Good.” Coulson smiled.

Bruce had a lot of questions for Thor about Asguard, the ether and space travel in general. The other boy was happy to oblige answering everything asked. He was an animated talker and seemed to have forgotten the can in his hand while gesturing. Much to Maria's relief Bruce covertly swapped their cans when the other boy set his down.

Next to Steve Tony was still curious about Clint's hearing and sign language in general. Clint did his best to demonstrate despite his hand, the food, and Natasha who had decided she had to protect Clint from just about everything and had positioned herself between the two boys. Tony didn't mind talking literally over her and just let her stay in place.

Steve noticed she wasn't eating first. She caught him looking and held his gaze. After a moment or so something seemed to occur to him. He reached across Clint and took her sandwich. The adults froze, sure his eye was looking better, and she had been fairly calm, but Steve was putting his hand in the spider web. They nearly reacted when he took a bite and chewed it thoughtfully. He waited a moment, nodded and handed it to her. She just held onto it for a little while watching Steve as he opened his bag of chips, ate one and made a face.

“Cool Ranch? Is that a flavor?” Bruce passed him his unopened bag of plain potato chips and Steve said his thanks. Curiously Natasha seemed to accept whatever just happend as the right thing and took a bite of her sandwich.

“Steve, what was that about?” Maria asked.

“I thought it was just a slogan on the bag.”

“No, the sandwich?”

“Oh, you said she didn't have a good childhood. I thought maybe she was worried something was wrong with the food. I didn't want her to go hungry.” Steve informed them like it was totally unremarkable. Dinner continued without incident the boys putting away a couple sandwiches each and Natasha relaxing enough to finish her full spread. She really seemed to enjoy the orange and wound up eating half of Clint's too, not that he minded.

“Walt Disney, still making movies. Are there any more here?” Steve was considerably more energetic after eating. Bruce fetched the bin of movies from the side room and the two of them flipped through it.

“Hercules? Aladdin? Lion King? Beauty and the Beast? I sort of remember these.” Bruce pulled that last one out of the box and went to put it in the DVD player. “Much better than VHS.” He added as he looked for somewhere to settle in.

“The couch is a pull out.” Coulson offered.

“That would have been nice to know sooner.” Maria gave him a look. Coulson shrugged. Soon six nearly super teenagers were squeezed onto the couch, with their chaperones half relaxed on the loveseat.

The kids were quiet for the most part, absorbed in the movie. Tony had found the pillows from the night before and made sure everybody had one. He propped himself up next to Bruce and the two of them tried to remember if and when they had seen other Disney movies. Thor was completely taken by the whole experience and was even happier to discover there was singing.

Clint was in the other corner of the couch, Natasha close at his side. Steve was fighting to keep his eyes open. When he got up to try and get comfortable Natasha swiped his pillow and brought it to her lap. She motioned Steve over.

“Sorry.” she gently touched his cheek below the bruise and said her first word since the day before and in English no less. Sam was startled.

“She was fluent by 11, but pushing her to talk wasn't going to be a good idea.” Coulson whispered.

“It's okay, you were scared.” Steve assured her before promptly falling asleep in her lap.

Sam had to resist calling it cute out loud, at seventeen he certainly didn't want to be cute. He just hoped the face he made to Maria got his point across.

Just as the movie was wrapping up something sort of odd happened. The group of teenagers who had still been lively and chatty as the credits rolled were all suddenly asleep. Even the hyper-vigilant Natasha was out cold against Clint's chest.

“That's weird.” Maria piped up as she removed the disk from the player.

“Thor said it was a spell right? Maybe that has something to do with it?”

“That would make sense. I can imagine suddenly aging fifteen or more years would be easier if you're not aware it's happening. Do you feel sleepy? I'm really sleepy.”

“It must be easier if everybody around you is asleep too.” Sam yawned and slid over on the couch to give Maria room to lay down. She dropped her pillow in his lap and soon they too were asleep. Coulson had managed to slip out before he was effected like the rest of them. He'd come back to check on them in the morning.

  
  


Sure enough when he he got there early the next morning, he was pleased to see eight whole, un-bruised, sleeping adults. He considered waking them, but they had collectively been through enough in the past two days and deserved a little rest. He closed the door quietly and rang Fury to let him know everything was back to normal.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to distinguish signing from talking (without having to continuously type out which was happening), so the quotations are left off of signed communication.

**Author's Note:**

> Clint's note to Bruce says  
> I don't like carrots anyway, I can see fine
> 
>  
> 
> I'm gonna try this out, this being linking my tumblr. If you want to say hi or something come visit here  
> [Andbonnykate](http://andbonnykate.tumblr.com/)


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